This invention relates to the production of carbonated candy which is a hard candy containing carbon dioxide gas as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,893 which is herein incorporated by reference. Such a candy is made by the process which comprises fusing a fusible sugar, contacting such fusible sugar with gas at a pressure of 50-1000 p.s.i.g. for a time sufficient to permit absorbtion in said sugar of 0.5-15 milliliters of gas per gram of sugar, maintaining the temperature of said sugar during said absorption above the solidification temperature of said fused sugar and cooling said sugar under pressure to a temperature less than its fusing temperature thereby obtaining a gas-containing solid.
Typically the above process is carried out within a Parr reactor (a thick-shelled pressure vessel having a stirrer). The temperature of the mixture in the Parr reactor is generally maintained above 212.degree. F. Carbon dioxide, which is the preferred gas, is admitted to the reactor to pressurize it to 600 p.s.i.g. The mixture is then agitated for 5 to 10 minutes. The 600 p.s.i.g. is maintained within the reactor and it is cooled to about 70.degree. F. The Parr reactor is now opened and the product within must be removed.
However, the removal is not an easy task. The product exists as a solid mass and within this mass is encased the agitator used to mix the product when it was in a liquid state. The product is manually removed by breaking it into small sections with means such as an ice pick. The pieces of carbonated candy thus removed vary greatly in size. Not only does the basic method of manually removing create size variations, but by the nature of the carbonated candy itself the gas within it tends to explode on impact and creates particle sizes which are quite random. Additionally, amounts of product will remain adhered to the walls of the reactor and such product must be scraped off or remelted to effect its removal. Further, it has been found to take 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 or more hours to cool the product to 70.degree. C. The reactor vessel, a major piece of equipment in the process, could potentially produce 15 to 25 times more product within a given time period if it were not necessary to cool the product within the reactor. Obviously, such procedures and results have a negative effect on any attempts to produce a carbonated candy in any great amounts.
Therefore, it will be highly desirable if a simple method were devised for cooling the carbonated candy in a vessel separate from the one in which the candy was originally infused with gas. It would also be highly desirable if the product could be removed from that vessel in a relatively uniform particle size. Further, it would be desirable to have a minimum of product remain adhering to the interior walls of said vessel.